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Book Review: The Broken Worlds

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Book Review: 'The Broken Worlds' by Raymond Harris


1 / 5 Stars

‘The Broken Worlds’ (248 pp.) was published in August 1986 by Ace Books; the cover artwork is by Ron Miller.

‘Worlds’ was Raymond Harris’s first novel; he published two other sf novels with Ace, ‘Shadows of the White Sun’ (1988) and ‘The Schizogenic Man’ (1990).

The novel is set in the far future, where the Federation has long since dissolved, and the colony worlds go about their business with few thoughts about the other worlds in the galaxy.

Attanio Hwin is a young, affectless musician who performs in the sleazy bars cramming the pleasure district of Parmenio, the Red Light Planet for the known galaxy. After a performance one night, he finds himself befriended by a beautiful off-world woman named Sringle, who travels in the company of Martian mercenaries. 


Beguiled by Sringle, Attanio agrees to help her and comrades – including a Martian aristocrat named Lord Teoru – steal a life-extending drug from Parmenio’s crime boss. The heist goes off, and Attanio is soon aboard Lord Teoru's spaceship Samuindorogo, where he discovers that the crew he has joined is no simple band of adventurers.

It seems that the Xilians, a humanoid, alien race, have embarked on a campaign of conquest of the known worlds, and Mars has been reduced to a wasteland by their assault. Lord Teoru and his followers are on a mission: recruit the most powerful of the colony worlds, and create a unified fleet, one with the firepower to confront the Xil invasion and stop it – before yet more worlds fall to their assault.

But as Attanio discovers, the colony worlds have little use for aiding a deposed Martian aristocrat……and when Teoru decides to use guile and deceit to gain allies, it’s strategy that brings great risk…….

‘The Broken Worlds’ starts off well enough, as the sort of mildly entertaining 80s space opera that was inspired to some extent by the success of Star Wars. You can’t go wrong with sleazy red light districts, greedy aliens, and laser battles in reeking alleyways.

Unfortunately, at the half-way point, ‘Broken’ turns from being a space opera into a sort of Galactic Travelogue for Gays, as Attanio visits the desert world of Ynenga in the company of Yuzen, a sensitive young Martian warrior. This leads to (wink-wink) a close and growing Friendship (wink-wink) between the two, a relationship aided by intensive study of yoga (wink-wink) within the close quarters of a desert cave – while a massive sandstorm rages outside…... yep, things get that cheesy.

After the desert world of Ynenga cements that Special Frienship between our two heroes, well, it’s off to the water world of Viharn, with its southeast Asian – inspired interior décor, tiki huts, colorful fashions with simply amazing fabrics, delectable foods, heavenly sweet music, and languorous atmosphere…….it’s one big beach party on Viharn !

Needless to say, once the Gay Travelogue material took over, finishing this book was a chore. 


I won’t disclose any spoilers, but I will say that eventually, the narrative slowly re-orients itself to the main plot point and the alarming confrontation with the Xil horde. However, the book’s denouement has a pat, perfunctory quality, as if the author was just looking to wrap things up as economically as possible.

As an example of 80s space opera, 'The Broken Worlds' can be passed by without penalty.

Heavy Metal April 1984

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'Heavy Metal' magazine April 1984



April, 1984, and in rotation on MTV is 'Adult Education' by Hall and Oates. This song apparently is jumping back into the public eye due to its being included in the soundtrack to the monster-selling video game Grand Theft Auto V.

The new issue of Heavy Metal magazine is on the stands, with a cheesy cover illustration by Boris Vallejo, and a back cover illustration by Michael Kanarek.

The contents feature new installments of 'Ranxerox', 'Tex Arcana', 'The Third Incal: Planet of ZGold', 'Salammbo II', and 'Valentina'. It also features the second installment of Charles Burns''El Borbah' character, in a new series titled 'Living in the Ice Age'.

The series kicked off with the March, 1984 issue of HM; to keep things in synchrony, I am posting the first and second episodes of 'Living in the Ice Age.'












Book Review: The Vang: The Battlemaster

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Book Review: 'The Vang: The Battlemaster' by Christopher Rowley


5 / 5 Stars

‘The Vang: The Battlemaster’ (313 pp) was published by Del Rey in October, 1990, with cover artwork by Steve Hickman.

This is the third and final volume in the ‘Vang’ trilogy, with ‘Starhammer’ (1986) and ‘The Vang: The Military Form’ (1988) the preceding volumes.



The events in ‘Battlemaster’ take place two thousand years after those related in ‘The Vang: The Military Form’.

On the planet Wexel, the aristocracy lead lives of idleness and comfort in the great cities, while the lumpen proletariat make do with conditions akin to that of slaves. The hinterlands are wracked by perpetual wars of liberation: brutal, nasty affairs in which both rebels and government mercenaries commit atrocities with casual aplomb.

Luisa Chang, colonel in the ITAA Federation, is assigned to the operations center on Wexel, where she hopes to uproot entrenched corruption and malfeasance, make a name for herself, and leave with a deserved promotion. However, Chang soon discovers that the planet’s corrupt ITAA officers, who turn a blind eye to smuggling, and who enjoy profitable relations with Wexel’s corporate class, are none too pleased about a gung-ho officer upsetting their apple cart.

In the remote central highlands of Wexel, Count Karvur, whose personal fortune has been badly depleted by a business deal gone wrong, is stewing in a potent mix of frustration and depression. He has been running through one hapless get-rich-quick scheme after another, without success, and the fleshpots and gambling dens and fern bars of the coastal cities seem permanently denied him. Karvur makes do with raping the malnourished peasant girls who labor on his farm, and having their fathers tortured if they complain about the molestations. But it’s small enjoyment to one who used to cut a grand path through the apex of Wexel society.

As the novel opens, luck suddenly decides to visit Count Karvur. For a drilling operation on the grounds of his property has found something unusual, something buried in a rock strata nearly 80 million years old: an immense labyrinth of alien design, etched through the rock, coiling and twisting its way to an inner chamber. And within that inner chamber is a stasis pod……with a pink wad of protoplasm slowly pulsating within its depths.

The discovery of the alien artifact brings dollar signs to the greedy eyes of Count Karvur. Disclosing his find to only one other person – Caroline Reese, a biologist at Cowdray University – Karvur moves the alien organism to an incubator inside a cattle shed on his farm. Once Caroline Reese is sworn to secrecy, she is given her assignment: analyze the organism, and discover if it is native to Wexel. If it turns out the protoplasm is not of native origin, then Count Karvur has made the discovery of the century.

But the alien blob has plans of its own…..and within the incubator inside the dank cattle shed at Count Karvur’s farm, pink tentacles and flower-like growths are taking shape……….

‘Battlemaster’ has much the same plot as ‘The Military Form’, namely, the Vang get loose on a Terran colony planet, and before anyone really understands what’s happening, the bodies start to pile up- lots of bodies. 


But the Battlemaster is the ultimate strategist, and to it, the subjugation of single planet is by no means the ultimate goal, so the plot takes a different tack from that featured in ‘The Military Form’.

Like the previous volumes in the trilogy, ‘Battlemaster’ is straightforward, cleanly written adventure sf, with a healthy dose of horror added into the mix (Rowley isn’t shy about describing the processes by which the Vang parasites convert unwilling humans into their hosts). At times, the corruption and cowardice of the human actors is as great a hindrance to combating the Vang, as the creatures themselves.

All of the ‘Vang’ novels have been out of print for a while, but used copies can be had for reasonable prices, so if you are a fan of fast-moving, well-told sf adventure, then getting a copy of the three books is well worth the money.

New York: Year Zero issue 1

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New York: Year Zero
by Ricardo Barreiro (script) and Juan Zanotto (art)
Eclipse Comics
Issue 1, August 1988


New York: Year Zero was originally published in 1984 as Nueva York: Año Cero by the Argentinian duo of Ricardo Barreiro and Juan Zanotto. 

Eclipse Comics, one of the myriad US indie comics publishers that were active in the 80s Comics Boom, reprinted translated versions of a number of Argentinian titles, including New York: Year Zero, which was released as a four-issue series in 1988. The Eclipse Comics version of the series was given color covers by Mark Johnson, which are mediocre.

Since defunct, in their time Eclipse published some good comics, picking the best of foreign-produced material, and NY:YZ was one of these. 

Zanotto's artwork has the gritty, 'European' stylings and draftsmanship of the classic Metal Hurlant / Heavy Metal magazine pieces from Enki Bilal, Serge Clerc, Chantal Montellier, fellow Argentinian Juan Gimenez, and, to some extent, Moebius.

The story is set in 2015, when our hero, Brian Chester, a soldier in the bloody Venusian wars, manages to escape the conflict and return to Earth and to home: New York City. 

Needless to say, this version of New York City is the treasured one from near-future, apocalyptic sf: an overcrowded, ultra-violent hellhole. Brian Chester soon will discover that as bad as things were on Venus, they were nothing compared to the depravity and danger of the Big Apple.......!

Mixing equal parts Soylent Green and Escape from New York, some Judge Dredd ''Mega-City One' flavorings, and nice touches of sarcastic humor, NY:YZ is a great adventure comic. I'll be releasing the other three issues over the next few months here at the PorPor Books Blog.
























Dreadstar: The Beginning

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Dreadstar: The Beginning by Jim Starlin



Jim Starlin’s ‘Dreadstar’ comic books and graphic novels appeared on a regular basis throughout the 1980s, and since that time, have been reprinted in a bewildering number of volumes in different color formats from different publishers…… trying to sort out the contents of each of these compilations is no small task.

This Dynamite hardbound edition (2010; 230 pp) compiles all the Dreadstar material from ‘Metamorphosis Odyssey’, ‘The Price’ graphic novel, the ‘Dreadstar’ graphic novel, and the ‘Dreadstar’ chapter that appeared as a singleton adventure in Epic Illustrated. All of these works first appeared in the interval from 1980 – 1982.

This volume from Dynamite uses a high-quality, glossy paper stock. However, it is several inches smaller than the magazines and graphic novels the stories originally appeared in, so the typeface is comparatively cramped……and sometimes difficult to read.


The whole 'Dreadstar' series started as a serial in Epic Illustrated magazine: ‘Metamorphosis Odyssey’, which appeared in the very first issue (the Spring, 1980 issue), and appeared in succeeding issues as 14 chapters, concluding with the December, 1981 issue. All of the artwork in the chapters was painted, some of it in black and white, and some in color. 

‘Metamorphosis’ dealt with adventures in a galaxy far, far, away, a long, long time ago (the entire ‘Dreadstar’ canon borrows, not surprisingly, from ‘Star Wars’). The dread Empire of the Zygoteans is enslaving all civilizations in the galaxy; only the planet of the Osirosians is able to resist, but their resources are becoming depleted as a result of the 500-year conflict. 


In a last, desperate effort to defeat the Zygoteans, the Osirosians dispatch their most gifted warrior and priest, a long-nosed man named Aknaton, to scour the galaxy for a team of heroes capable of joining together to wield the ultimate weapon. 


Among this team of heroes is the orphan Vanth, from the planet Byfrexia. Vanth is the equivalent of a Jedi Knight, equipped with a magic sword, superhuman strength, impressive spaceship piloting skills, and unmatched skills in hand-to-hand and ranged weapon combat.





I won’t disclose any spoilers, save to say that Vanth – soon rechristened Vanth Dreadstar – plays a key role in the struggle against the Zygotean onslaught.


In 1981 a quasi-sequel, titled ‘The Price’, was published by Marvel / Epic as a black-and-white graphic novel. ‘The Price’ was primarily concerned with the adventures of Syzygy Darklock, the man who would become Vanth Dreadstar’s mentor and ally. 

‘The Price’ moves away from sf, and more into the type of magic-based adventures that characterized the world of Marvel Comic's 'Dr. Strange'.



  

The series’ next installment was ‘Dreadstar’, a Marvel Graphic Novel published in 1982. Featuring color artwork, this volume centers on the adventures of Vanth Dreadstar as he confronts – however unwillingly – the need to deploy his martial skills in the ongoing conflict between the Monarchy and the Instrumentality, the two major political blocs fighting for control of the galaxy.


The 'Dreadstar: The Beginning' compilation concludes with an Epilogue, a ‘Dreadstar’ chapter that appeared in black-and-white in the December, 1982 issue (No. 15) of Epic Illustrated. This chapter relates Dreadstar’s efforts to seize a spaceship from an Instrumentality mining colony and contains a lot of flashback sequences. 

Starlin was presumably using this chapter as a teaser for the Dreadstar comic book series, which was inaugurated in November, 1982 by Epic Comics and eventually ran for 64 issues.


So, what do you get with this compilation of all the early adventures of the ‘Dreadstar’ franchise ? As I mentioned, it borrows to some degree from classic space opera and ‘Star Wars’, but it also incorporates the ‘cosmic’ perspective that Starlin routinely employed in his work during the 70s and 80s for Marvel titles like ‘Warlock’ and ‘Captain Marvel’, as well as the high-profile crossover series ‘Infinity Gauntlet’, and ‘Cosmic Odyssey’ for DC.

Dreadstar is not an action comic or a superhero comic; instead, it chooses to focus on a more wordy, cerebral approach, leading to panels that are overloaded with speech balloons and text boxes. This may turn off readers who are more accustomed to the minimalist, 'show, don't tell' formatting of contemporary comics.
 

While there are occasional bloody battles between Dreadstar and Empire troops, much of the series’ contents are devoted to lengthy dialogues between various characters on a variety of ‘deep’ topics. There is always a note of ambiguity about the seemingly ‘right’ decisions that are made in the struggles against the forces of evil, and every victory comes with its cost. At times Starlin’s prose becomes too overwrought, and unconsciously comes a bit too close to self-parody, a phenomenon that characterized his efforts for ‘Warlock’, ‘Thanos’, and ‘Captain Marvel’. 


By and large, however, if you appreciate a space opera with more depth than the genre is usually accredited, then this Dreadstar compilation is worth investigating. It’s also a welcome change from contemporary comics, in that Starlin takes pains to frame his plots using flashbacks and external narration, devices rarely present in modern comics, which often suffer from awkward lapses in visual and storytelling continuity.

As well, Starlin’s use of painted artwork, involving a canny use of different shadings of grays and whites for the black-and-white episodes, stands apart from contemporary comics and their flat, computer-assisted approach to illustration.
 

Book Review: Earth Magic

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Book Review: 'Earth Magic' by Alexei and Cory Panshin


1 / 5 Stars

'Earth Magic' (275 pp.) was published by Ace Books in October, 1978. The cover artwork is by Boris Vallejo.

The novel takes place in a standard-issue medieval fantasy kingdom, where the teenaged Haldane is the only son of the King of the Tribe of the Gets, and the Ruler of the Land of Nestor: Black Morca. Black Morca is not the brightest of individuals – indeed, every Get is quite stupid– but his strength and brute cunning have allowed him to enlarge the boundaries of his kingdom.

As ‘Earth’ opens, Black Morca has made an alliance with Lothar of Chastain, who arrives at Morca’s castle with his daughter, Princess Marthe, who is engaged to Haldane. The alliance is one of convenience for Black Morca, as it will enable him to focus his efforts on the conquest of adjoining lands. Neither Haldane nor Marthe are particularly enthused over their nuptials, but Haldane sees it as one small way to become closer to his indifferent, preoccupied father.

However, even as the wedding celebration takes place, discord flares. Alliances are undone, and Haldane must flee for his life from the castle of Black Morca, accompanied by the court wizard, Oliver. Overnight, Haldane goes from being the heir to the kingdom, to a hunted outcast sneaking furtively through the woodlands. 


Haldane’s sole hope for survival is to escape the boundaries of Nestor and travel to his grandfather’s kingdom of Angrim. But Haldane discovers that he must deal with another, supernatural party as he struggles to avoid capture: the Earth Goddess Libera has marked him for purposes of her own……

Like his previous novel, ‘Rite of Passage’, ‘Earth Magic’ is another novel by author Panshin (here assisted by his wife, Cory) that focuses on an adolescent’s journey to adulthood. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but ‘Earth’ is one of the worst fantasy novels I’ve ever read.

The prose style of ‘Earth Magic’ is stridently wooden and stilted, veering within the same page between a faux-‘Old Legende’ phrasing devoid of contractions and colloquialisms; to figurative phrases reminiscent of the more cumbersome types of New Wave sf writing. 


For example, when Ivor is knocked out, he simply isn’t knocked out; no, rather: Ivor went wandering in night realms.

Still other segments of the narrative clumsily mix clichéd, empty phrasing and awkward syntax:

He had let himself forget that narrow practice was his failing and practiced narrowly. He had lost himself in study, lost himself in thought and question, paused for a moment in dream while he wondered where his youth had flown and wither he was bound. To what end had he been born ? And while he was occupied so in reverie, he had lost his balance.

Oliver had tricked Oliver and received a blow from Oliver that had set Oliver down. Where was order ? His world was broken. His mind ran on its own heels in subtle circles.


The novel’s writing reaches a nadir in the last chapter, where a climactic confrontation between Haldane and his enemies is made tedious and numbing by the determined use of portentous, self-consciously ‘heroic’ prose. 


My opinion: ‘Earth Magic’ is a novel to avoid.

The Bus by Paul Kirchner

May is Ghetto Action Month !

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May is Ghetto Action Month !

That's right, folks !

I've become quite jaded from reading  so many sf novels and short story collections - particularly when so many of them are awful - that it's time for a much-needed change of pace !

During the month of May, I'll be reviewing classic Ghetto Action novels.

Pimps, teen hoods, gang-bangers, junkies, hustlers, and 'headbreakers' (cops).

None of that S. E. Hinton 'The Outsiders' shit, either. This is straight-up Ghetto Action. The kind that makes civilized people uncomfortable.

Get ready for shootings, stabbings, weed, junk, bitch-slapping, fear, and violence. 

And 7-Up and saran wrap (you'll find out what for.......and you'll be saying, what?!  when you do !).

Stand by for Ghetto Action Month here at the PorPor Blog !


To get you in the mood, here's a great soul track: 'Outstanding' by the Gap Band, from 1982.....

Book Review: The Cool World

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Book Review: 'The Cool World' by Warren Miller


5 / 5 Stars 

Warren Miller (1921 - 1966) wrote a number of novels that were published in the late 50s and early 60s. `The Cool World' was issued in hardback by Little, Brown and Co. in 1959; the same year, this Fawcett Premier paperback (160 pp) was released.

`Cool' comes from an era before concepts like `black English', `Ebonics', `rap', `gang-banging', and `hip-hop' existed. But all were present in primordial form, awaiting the rise of the Civil Rights movement, Black Power, and the advent of the culture of the black, urban underclass as a sociocultural phenomenon.

The entire narrative is told in the first-person, and in Ebonics:

"The reason summer time such a gas an a fake is because it come on like it gonna last for ever but you know it aint."

Despite being white and Jewish, author Miller expertly captures the argot of the Harlem streets in the late 50s, as if he, too, lived in the stifling, garbage-strewn tenements that housed his characters. This places `Cool' on par with the depictions of black life in the cities in the 50s and 60s authored by Chester Himes, Iceberg Slim, and Donald Goines. And it also seems as if `Cool' was the direct inspiration for Frank Bonham's classic 1965 young adult novel `Durango Street'.

The plot unfolds over the summer months, as Richard `Duke' Custis, member of the Royal Crocadiles gang, prepares for a decisive rumble with the neighborhood rivals, the Wolves. The situation is critical: the Wolves have been encroaching on Crocadiles' turf, and delivering brutal beatdowns on lone Crocs.

To make matters worse, the Crocadiles' leader, Blood, is losing his edge. It's up to Duke to take control and turn the disheartened Crocs into a fighting force. Because if the Crocs can't protect their turf, Harlem will no longer be safe for Duke, or any of his friends and fellow gang members....

The book consists of short ( 3- 8 pages in length) chapters, written in a declarative and unadorned prose, with a nod to the grand tradition of realistic American fiction pioneered by Stephen Crane, James T. Farrell, Hubert Selby, and Richard Price.

Interwoven with the main plot of preparing for the decisive rumble, are sub-plots dealing with the damaged characters drawn off the streets and into Duke's orbit. These address conflicts with family who simply don't realize the necessity of being in a gang; and the (politically incorrect !) exploitation of young black men as rent boys and male prostitutes, by white homosexuals.

`The Cool World' belongs in the library of anyone who enjoys a well-written novel about the American underclass, right there on the shelves alongside `Durango Street', `Last Exit to Brooklyn', `Hell Up In Harlem', and `The Wanderers'.

Sex in the Comics

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'Sex in the Comics' by Maurice Horn



‘Sex in the Comics’ was published in 1985 by Chelsea House. The hardbound edition is a well-made, quality book, primarily illustrated in black and white and graytone text, with two sections of color illustrations. 

The contents might have been considered provocative and hard-core in 1985; however, by 2014 standards, this is probably an 'R' rated compendium (or perhaps a softcore 'X'). Needless to say, modern teenagers would find its contents quaint, if not mildly amusing.



Maurice Horn published a number of books throughout the 70s and 80s on various aspects of comics and graphic art, including The World Encyclopedia of Comics, Women in the Comics, Contemporary Graphic Artists, and 100 Years of American Newspaper Comics.



‘Sex in the Comics’ is an overview of this topic in both history and geography. The initial chapters look at sex in 19th and early 20th century newspaper strips, such as ‘Bringing Up Father’. Other chapters examine comics in the pre- and post- WWI period, as well as the advent of soap opera strips, like ‘On Stage’, which I remember reading in the pages of the the Sunday New YorkDaily News as a kid in the late 60s and early 70s.



For fans of sf and fantasy, the two corresponding chapters: 'Spaced Out Sex' and 'Sex and Fantasy', will be of greater interest. While inevitably dated, these chapters give a good summary of these genres as they stood in the mid-80s. 

Works by European artists, many of whom are very familiar to readers of Heavy Metal, Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella, are prominently covered in these chapters.










Other chapters cover sex in underground comix, superheroes and sex, and ‘satirical sex’, (whatever that is).



The book’s two color plate sections, one inserted mid-way in the book, and the other as part of the appendix, offer very good reproductions of selected pages and panels from both well-known and more obscure works.




The appendix, ‘A Comic View of Sex Around the World’, features a large section of excerpts from comics from the USA, Europe, South America, and Asia. Again, while dated, there is some interesting material showcased.





Fans of comics will want to pick up a copy of this book; used copies in hardback and trade paperback editions are available for reasonable prices online.

Heavy Metal May 1984

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'Heavy Metal' magazine May 1984



May, 1984, and in heavy rotation on MTV is 'Ever Changing Moods' by the Style Council, the band formed by former Jam member Paul Weller.

The latest issue of Heavy Metal magazine is out, featuring a front cover by Luis Royo and a back cover by Peter Sato.

The contents of the magazine offer continuing installments of 'The Third Incal' by Jodorowsky and Moebius; 'Tex Arcana' by Findley; 'Salammbo II' by Druillet; a particularly violent episode by Tamburini and Liberatore's 'Ranxerox'; a new feature, 'The Railways', by Schuiten and and Renard.

This is one of the better issues of HM for 1984, with a number of good one-shot comics included in the contents. One of these, Pepe Moreno's 'Bunker 6A', is posted, below, along with a new episode of Charles Burns's 'El Borbah: Living in the Ice Age'.













Book Review: Go Down Dead

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Book Review: 'Go Down Dead' by Shane Stevens

5 / 5 Stars

In 1947, Irving Schulman published what is arguably the progenitor volume of the ‘teen street gang’ genre of literature with ‘The Amboy Dukes’, a novel about a group of Jewish teens involved in violence and mayhem on the streets of Brooklyn. The book was a hit, and led to two sequels, as well as a 1951 feature film, titled ‘City Across the River’.

The genre was further defined in 1958, with the publication of Harlan Ellison’s novel ‘Web of the City’ / ‘Rumble’, based on his experiences (so he claimed) with an Italian street gang in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn.

In 1959, Warren Miller published his novel ‘The Cool World’, which put the spotlight on black gangs.

‘Cool World’ was about a teenager and gang leader in the New York City ghetto named ‘Duke’ Custis. ‘Cool’ was set in the summer months, and followed Duke Custis’s efforts to prepare his gang, the Royal Crocadiles, for an upcoming rumble with their hated rivals, the Wolves. Miller’s novel was a first-person narrative related in Ebonics: "The reason summer time such a gas an a fake is because it come on like it gonna last for ever but you know it aint."

Shane Stevens, who, like Shulman, Miller, and Ellison, is white (an unwitting Chester Himes was so taken with ‘Go Down Dead’ that he praised Stevens as the ‘greatest black novelist in Harlem’), also got aboard the teen street gang genre with ‘Go Down Dead’ (1967; this Pocket Books paperback version was published in 1968). 

‘Go’ borrows pretty heavily from ‘The Cool World’, so much so that it could be argued that it’s a plagiarized version of Miller’s novel.

In ‘Go’, which is set in Harlem in the mid-60s, the protagonist is Adam Clayton Henry, who goes by his street name of ‘King’ Henry. As with Miller’s novel, ‘Go’ uses a first-person narrative related in Ebonics.

King is only sixteen, but his smarts and ambition have led him to be the leader of the Playboys, Harlem’s toughest street gang. The Playboys have been locked in a vicious war with a neighboring white gang, known as the Tigers; as the atrocities committed by each warring party increase in number and severity, King decides it’s time for a decisive rumble.

‘Go’ takes place over an eight-day interval, and follows King Henry as he tries to procure the armaments that will give the Playboys the edge in the upcoming battle. Henry’s efforts lead to encounters with some of the hustlers, criminals, whores, and gangsters who earn their living on the mean, desperate streets of Harlem. 

More so than Miller, Stevens focuses his narrative on the down-and-dirty aspects of ghetto life: plentiful cheap-and-easy sex, violence dished out by racist cops (referred to as ‘headbreakers’), scheming preachers, con men, slumming white hippie chicks infatuated with black men and their ‘tools’, and the despair that underlies every day spent in the confines of the ghetto.

Some of Stevens’ observations are quite contrived and exploitative: in one instance, King Henry observes that ghetto prostitutes use saran wrap as an impromptu condom (!), and 7-Up as an improvised douche, contrivances clearly designed to give the readers of the mid-60s the sort of illicit thrill that nowadays drives so many affluent suburban boys to listen to Gangsta Rap music. 

I won’t disclose any spoilers, save to say that Stevens does a good job of building up the suspense as the latter chapters lead to the decisive rumble. And, as should be the case with Ghetto Action literature, there is no fairy tale, uplifting ending.

‘Go Down Dead’, despite its derivative nature, remains a classic of teen street gang / urban lit. While both the original hardbound and paperback versions are available, they are unfortunately rather steeply priced, starting as $10 for copies in mediocre condition. If you can find a copy on the used bookstore shelves for less, by all means grab it.

New York: Year Zero issue 2

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New York: Year Zero
by Ricardo Barreiro (script) and Juan Zanotto (art)
Eclipse Comics
Issue 2, August 1988


Issue two features all kinds of cool events in the New York City of 'Year Zero': 

......a psychotic sniper......

.......a gang of lesbians (!) who rob the unwary...

.......flesh-eating rats.......

......crematory trucks.......... 

..........and an ultra-violet street shootout. What more Ghetto Action can you ask from a sci-fi comic ?!




































The Bus

Book Review: To Reach A Dream

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Book Review: 'To Reach A Dream' by Nathan C. Heard


5 / 5 Stars

‘To Reach A Dream’ was published by Signet in July, 1973. The outstanding cover illustration is uncredited. 


While reading this review, it is very helpful to listen to 'Happiness is Just Around the Bend' (1974) by 'The Main Ingredient'. 



Nathan C. Heard (1936 - 2004) was born and grew up in poverty in Newark, New Jersey. As a young man he spent eight years in Trenton State Prison on an armed robbery charge, where, to pass the time, he read paperback novels. Heard was determined to be a writer, and in 1968, just one month before his release from prison, he published the novel ‘Howard Street’. It was a bestseller and brought Heard critical acclaim from literary figures.

Heard was a faculty member at Fresno State College, Rutgers University, before becoming a freelancer and a speechwriter to Newark mayor Kenneth Gibson. He had a supporting role as ‘Big Pink’ in the 1973 Blacksploitation film ‘Gordon’s War’.

Along with ‘Howard Street’ and ‘To Reach A Dream’, Heard published ‘A Cold Fire Burning’ (1974), ‘When Shadows Fall’ (1977), and ‘House Of Slammers’ (1983).


[All of these novels are, sadly, out of print, and used copies fetch very high prices.]
 

Heard wrote about ghetto life and its tribulations in a straightforward, clear prose style; in my opinion, his writing is superior to that of Iceberg Slim, Donald Goines, and even Chester Himes. Much of the material in Heard’s novels is based on his own experiences, bringing a note of legitimacy to the dialogue, the plotting, and the exposition that you can’t find in other novels of the genre.

‘Dream’ is set in Newark the early 70s, and opens with straight-up Ghetto Action: an act of violence that will leave you wincing. 


In short order we are introduced to Bart Kedar Enos, the protagonist. Bart is young, black, good-looking, and ambitious. He’s also utterly self-centered and amoral.

Born and raised on Court Street on Newark, Bart is a modestly successful pimp, earning a living off his girlfriend Anita. But Bart has greater ambitions than to be just another striving hustler. He wants to reach the ranks of the major players, pimps like Po Bob, Hollywood, Chico, Longhair, Black Rudy, and Sugar Shaw, and to have his own Cadillac parked outside Danny’s nightclub. And he has a plan to achieve his Dream…..

Bart obtains a job as a live-in handyman to
Sarah Hamilton, a widowed, middle-aged black woman who ‘passes’ for white. It’s only a matter of time before Bart is doing a lot more for his boss than fixing the shelving in her mansion in the suburbs, and his work performance for Sarah is so…satisfactory….that soon he is enjoying access to the clothes and cars and financial security that makes real his Dream.

But things have a way of getting complicated….and in Bart’s case, the complications will force him to make some difficult decisions about himself, and world he seeks to escape.

Despite being only 156 pages long, ‘Dream’ is a more engrossing novel than the majority of novels - of any genre - I have ever read. It’s a classic of modern American realism, fully immersing the reader in the culture of the ghetto and its players. And while Bart Enos is by no means a hero, ‘Dream’ succeeds in making his attitudes and actions understandable to someone unfamiliar with the atmosphere of poverty and desperation that governs ghetto life.

Heard’s dialogue has the ring of authenticity, as in this conversation between two pimps:

“How that nigga get that babe to marry him ?” Hollywood asked in low tones.

Longhair stanced with his left arm akimbo. “Prob’ ly ate her pussy, that’s how." He pushed back his toupee which had slipped forward onto his forehead. “Betcha he won’t keep the bitch two months; she got too much class for a chump like him.”

Hollywood laughed, but seeing his chance for a dig at Longhair, said, “You eat pussy too, sucka. Louise told on you.”

“You tellin’ a muthafuckin’ lie if you say
I eat it – and Louise ain’t told you no such shit as that…..That who’e knew I’d kill her if she said some shit like that about me. If I don’t git it from the nut, baby, then I don’t need it.”

Hollywood’s teeth flashed brilliant. “Maybe that’s why she ran away from yo’ ass; maybe you shoulda ate some….” 


Unlike Heard’s other novels, all of which are out of print, copies of ‘To Reach A Dream’ can be found for reasonable prices (i.e., under $12). If you are a fan of ghetto fiction, or just good fiction per se, then getting a copy is a worthwhile decision.

Marada the She Wolf by John Bolton

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'Marada the She-Wolf'
by John Bolton
from Epic Illustrated No. 11, April 1982
colorized version from 'Marada the She Wolf' graphic novel compilation 
Titan Books, September 2013


Classic Space: 1999: To Everything That Was

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Space: 1999 : To Everything That Was
edited by Andrew E. C. Gaska
Archaia / Black Label September, 2013



‘Space : 1999’ premiered on Britain’s ATV channel on September 4, 1975. The series, which eventually lasted for 48 episodes until November 1977, was produced by the UK studio ITV.

Outside the UK its appearance was irregular; in the US, the major networks refused to purchase the show, and it wound up being syndicated, with the first episode airing in selected viewing areas in the Fall of 1975.

I never watched any episodes, as the show was never featured on the four channels (PBS, NBC, ABC, and CBS)
we had access to at my house back in those ancient days of television. By the standards of the time the show was very costly to produce, and the lack of advertising revenue in the US was probably one of the reasons why a third season was never filmed.

Also, Space: 1999 wasn’t very good.




As part of the promotion and marketing for the show, Charlton comics launched both a color comic book, and a black and white comic magazine, for Space: 1999. The b & w magazine premiered in the Fall of 1975, with a November, 1975 cover date, and ran for 8 issues, until October, 1976. 

The contents for some issues can be downloaded as .cbr and .cbz files from here.

The first issue of the color comic also bore a November, 1975 cover date, and ultimately lasted for 7 issues until November, 1976. A series of reprints and one-shots also appeared on a sporadic basis.
 


So….this brings me to ‘Classic Space: 1999: To Everything That Was’ (304 pp., Archaia, August 2013). It’s as weird a book as its title.

Apparently, editor and Space: 1999 Fanboy Andrew Gaska decided to pick selected stories from the 1975 – 1976 Charlton b & w magazines, colorize them, and republish them as part of this ‘remastered’ volume from Archaia Black Label, an indie digital comic / graphic novel publisher from Chicago who may be best known for publishing the ‘Mouse Guard’ comics. 




Archaia also publishes entirely new content for the Space: 1999 franchise, content also edited by Gaska, some of which has been compiled in another graphic novel titled ‘Space: 1999: Aftershock and Awe’.


‘Classic Space: 1999: To Everything That Was’ is carefully packaged to avoid indicating to the potential reader that its contents are 40 year-old black and white comics, comics that have been ‘reimagined’ to give the impression that they are new content. 

For example, Gaska includes no Table of Contents, and there is no copyright or licensing information to divulge what issues of the original Charlton magazines the ‘reimagined’ stories are adapted from. The end pages of ‘To Everything’ do feature a cover gallery of some of the issues of the color comic and the comic magazine (with date, pricing, and number information deleted), but there is no ancillary text to notify the reader which ‘reimagined’ stories are associated with the depicted issues of the Charlton comics.




Gaska’s approach to the Space: 1999 franchise is one that is therefore carefully calculated to provide enough Ambiguity of Attribution to give the impression that ‘Creative Director’ Gaska is the writer and creator of the contents. I don’t agree with this approach, and neither, it seems, do a lot of sf comics fans; one reviewer at amazon.com remarks that:

This book/limited series ([i.e., ‘Space: 1999: Aftershock and Awe’] is far superior to the intellectual and artistic raping that Gaska gave the Charlton Comics' Space 1999 series in the deplorable To Everything That Was.




So, with the backstory properly introduced, it’s time to ask, just how good – or bad - is ‘Classic Space: 1999: To Everything That Was’ ?

My opinion is that the stories Gaska picked for representation here are no better, and no worse, than the other sf comics, based on licensed properties, that were issued steadily throughout the 70s. Comics like Gold Key / Western’s ‘Star Trek’ series, Marvel’s ‘Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction’, or Marvel’s ‘Logan’s Run’ series, among others.



Comics Code restrictions, along with the obvious restrictions placed on licensed properties, meant that the stories are rather bland and unremarkable. The usual sf tropes are present: sentient computers that attempt to trick our crew via the use of simulations of medieval-era fantasy adventures; descendents of the Aztecs living alive and well on a far-off planet; a planet inhabited by plant-life that is not as passive as it seems; etc.


The colorization of the original artwork relies on a muted palette, with an emphasis on Earth Tones, which means that it’s a bit difficult to see just how well-done the original artwork actually was. Some of this original artwork (referred to by Gaska as ‘visualizations’) was done by industry legends such as Gray Morrow, and a young John Byrne. 

It seems to hold up well in this reprinting, although at 6 ¾ inches x 10 ¼ inches, the dimensions of ‘Classic: Space 1999’ are considerably smaller than those of the original Charlton magazines, which means that the artwork and text are reduced in size and older readers are probably going to need glasses to make out the text.


Summing up, it’s hard not to conclude that the ‘Space: 1999’ comics franchise would have been just as well served by being reprinted, in chronological order, in the same style and formatting that Marvel and DC use for their older comics, including the ‘Essentials’ and ‘Showcase’ formats. 

‘Classic Space: 1999: To Everything That Was’ is really only for the hardcore fanboys.

Book Review: Steel Shivs

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Book Review: 'Steel Shivs' by Bernard Sorkin


 3 / 5 Stars

'I'll shiv you in. I'll shiv you in. You dirty wop, you."

"I'm gonna get you, you bastard. I'm gonna get you, Steve, you wop."

"Wait till I get you, you bastard guinea, Steve Beta. I'll kill you ! Kill you !"

'Steel Shivs' certainly starts off on a promising note of Ghetto Action. It's the mid-50s, and in the tough Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, Steve 'Swifty' Beta is being pursued by a large, homicidal girl hopped up on dope. A girl brandishing a switchblade knife. A girl who is comfortable using Ethnic Slurs.

Steve Beta succeeds in escaping a knifing. But it turns out his problems are only starting. For Steve is trying to turn his life around, to provide for his blind, elderly mother and his younger sister Betty, who, like Steve, make the best of things in a cramped, roach-infested apartment in a public housing project (not explicitly named, but probably the Red Hook Houses projects). 

Although Steve is on probation from a robbery charge, he's no longer in the gang life; he's got a job as a janitor in a jewelry store.



But Steve has come under scrutiny from the toughest, most violent gang in the neighborhood: the Tamaracks. Marked by their red-and-black color insignia, and their use of custom-made, extra-large switchblade knives, the Tamaracks run dope for the syndicate. And they aren't shy about murdering anyone who crosses them.

Tiny, the vicious leader of the Tamaracks, gives Steve Beta an ultimatum: Steve is to help the Tamaracks rob the jewelry store where he works. When Steve refuses, he finds his life in danger. And Steve can't turn to the cops for aid, because in Red Hook, there's no lower form of life than a Squealer..........

'Steel Shivs' (142 pp), published by Pyramid Books in May, 1962, fits comfortably within the Juvenile Delinquent sub-genre of postwar Pulp Fiction, the sort of paperback pulps that were epitomized the Gold Medal line from Fawcett. The front cover of 'Steel Shivs' has a blurb referencing the primordial juvie gang novel, Irving Shulman's 'The Amboy Dukes' (1947).



By the mid-50s, Red Hook had come to represent the epitome of the New York City crime-infested neighborhood, thanks to the movie On the Waterfront (1954). Voyeurs and poseurs made the pilgrimmage to the neighborhood to drink in the seedy essence; for example, in 1954, Harlan Ellison allegedly joined one of Red Hook's more violent teen gangs, The Barons, an experience he documented in his 1958 novel 'Web of the City' (aka 'Rumble').

As a juvie novel from 1962, 'Steel Shivs' doesn't stray too far from the formula. While the lurid cover blurbs promises a novel that deals with - and maybe even celebrates - depravity and violence, the story's main emphasis is on Steve's journey to redemption, a journey made with the help of a trio of older Jewish men who understand that not all the Red Hook kids are innate hoods and reprobates: Ben Rabin, the kind-hearted manager of the Red Hook Play Center; Jacob Becker, the owner of the jewelry store, and a man who decides to give Steve a badly needed second chance; and Al Flanz, the rough-and-ready Narc who investigates dope peddling along the Waterfront.



I won't disclose any spoilers, save to say that the ending of 'Steel Shivs' is rather predictable.

The verdict ? 'Steel Shivs' is a competent example of old-school Ghetto Action, but not a must-have.

Oscar Dystel, Bantam Books president

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Oscar Dystel, Bantam Books president, dies at age 101


Oscar Dystel died May 28, at age 101. 

In 1954 he was hired as the president of Bantam Books, at that time a failing enterprise. A year later the firm was turning a profit, and when Dystel retired in 1980, the firm was earning $100 million yearly.


Dystel was responsible for printing best-sellers like Valley of the Dolls, A Catcher in the Rye and Jaws, as well as exerting influence over the cover art and presentation of the Bantam line.

He oversaw the acquisition and publication of many books that were part and parcel of being a sci-fi reader in the Baby Boomer era: Doc Savage (The Motion Menace, Doc Savage No. 64, September, 1971, is in the shelving just beside Dystel's left hand in the photo scanned above) and Star Trek being two of the most prominent series. 

But if you read Louis L'Amour Western novels, you also were reading Bantam titles. Same thing for so many of the 'fringe' books of the 60s and 70s: Chariots of the Gods, Limbo of the  Lost, The Devil's Triangle, Beyond Earth....


The Bantam Story1970 and The Bantam Story 1975 images courtesy of the Fred Pfeiffer Artist blog

And chances are, many of the Bantam Books you read featured striking cover illustrations by James Bama, Bantam's top artist and a major reason behind the success of so many titles. 


And if you read A Seperate Peace, or anything by Herman Hesse, then you were most likely reading a Bantam Book..........


I think that tomorrow, when I'm out running some errands, I'll stop by the used bookstore on Seminole Trail / Route 29 here in Charlottesville, and see if I can find some neat Bantam Books among the shelving........

Hip Hop Family Tree No. 1 : 1975 - 1981

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Hip Hop Family Tree No. 1
by Ed Piskor
Fantagraphics Books, 2013


Ed Piskor (b. 1982) is a Pittsburg-based cartoonist who did several graphic novels, including American Splendor: Our Movie Year and The Beats: A Graphic History, as well as a series titled Phreak, about the first generation of phone and PC hackers.

Piskor, who was only an infant when hip hop emerged in the pop culture, produced a regular web comic for the BoingBoing website titled 'Hip Hop Family Tree'. The webcomic was an intricate recounting of the early history of rap, from its beginnings in the Bronx in the mid-70s, up to the early 80s.

In 2013 Fantagraphics Books released the compilation of the first set of Family Tree episodes, 'Hip Hop Family Tree No. 1 (1975 - 1981)'. 

Volume 2, 'Hip Hop Family Tree No. 2 (1981 - 1983), which presumably includes content currently running at BoingBoing, is scheduled for release in September, 2014.


At 13 x 9.2 inches in size, HHFT: No 1 is designed to mimic the dimensions of the oversize Marvel Treasury 'giant size' comics of the 1970s. Its paper coloration is also designed to mimic the tone and fabric of the cheap paper used in those comics, appropriately aged.


The narrative commences in 1975, with D. J. Kool Herc using his turntable skills to wow the crowds at dance parties in the crumbling neighborhoods of the Bronx. Piskor then moves through the ensuing years of the emergence and convergence of rap, gang culture, break dancing, graffiti, and technology. 


All of the Old Scholl Hip Hop stars are represented, including Grandmaster Flash, Kurtis Blow, the Sugar Hill Gang, Russell Simmons (depicted here with a off-kilter eyeball and pronounced lisp), and the Furious Five: Melle Mel, Cowboy, Raheim, Mr Ness, Kid Creole.


But there is also a host of other rappers, street characters, producers, and managers who I was never aware of, and they are here, too: Spoony Gee (so-called because he never ate using utensils other than a spoon !), Spyder D, the Aleems, 'Busy Bee' Starski, 'Lovebug' Starksi, Eddie Cheeba, and the Funky Four Plus One, among others.


Along the way, the seeping of hip hop into the larger music culture is recounted, as Debby Harry and Blondie, along with the Clash, tune into the Bronx music scene.



All sort of little asides and tidbits are disclosed in HHFT: No. 1, and that kept me turning the pages:


Piskor devotes several pages to the epic 1981 battle between 'Busy Bee' Starski and Kool Moe Dee at the Harlem World Christmas Rapper Convention.......Kool Moe Dee wiped the floor.


The book concludes with 1981, when Blondie's song 'Rapture' intorduced rap to the larger, white audience, and mainstream media programs - like the 1981 airing of an episode of the ABC newsmagazine 20/20 - began to deovte attention to the genre.



I can't say I've ever been a fan of the indie comics scene - I have always considered the work of Dan Clowes, Jim Woodring, the Hernandez Brothers, Adrian Tomine, Harvey Pekar, Peter Bagge, etc., etc. to be over-hyped, and lacking in real artistry. 

That said, Piskor does effective job with HHFT: No. 1. His decision to use a 'cartoony' drawing style, along with a subdued color scheme, gives the book's graphics a 'vintage' look and feel that meshes well with its subject matter.


If you're over 40, then leafing through the pages of HHFT: No. 1 is sure to evoke at least some degree of nostalgia, for things from that era in pop culture that you may not have thought about for a long, long time - such as buying a 'boombox', a Kangol cap, an adidas tracksuit, or a milk crate - to store, and transport, all your records.
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